The San Marcos Arts Commission is calling for nominations for an annual award honoring individuals or organizations that have substantially enriched the community’s cultural and artistic life.

The city’s Contribution to the Arts program recognizes artists and their patrons, cultural associations and businesses that have nurtured quality of life and economic vitality through the visual and performing arts, arts commission chair Clay DeStefano said.

Past recipients include Arlis Hiebert, who chairs San Marcos Academy’s Fine Arts department; Texas State University lecturer Linda Kelsey-Jones, who curates the Walkers’ Gallery at the San Marcos Activity Center; Ofelia Vasquez-Philo, founder of Centro Cultural Hispano de San Marcos and a longtime Hays County Historical Commission member; and Kent Finlay, a Texas country and folk music partisan who founded the landmark Cheatham Street Warehouse.

Other recipients include restauranteur Kyle Mylius, whose Root Cellar Café and Tantra Coffeehouse are hubs of downtown life; photographer and painter Jerry Touchstone Kimmel; Ron and Marie Jaeger, who led successful efforts to preserve and restore the historic 1893 former First Christian Church on San Antonio Street; Deanna Badgett, a longtime local violin teacher; and Texas State University lecturer and gallery curator Billi London-Gray.

Nomination forms and award information, including a list of eligibility criteria, can be downloaded here. Nominations must be received at the city of San Marcos’ Grant Harris Building, 401 E. Hopkins St., by 5 p.m. Monday, Aug. 17.

For information, contact city recreation programs manager Lisa Morris by phone at 512-393-8400 or by email here.